Beatrice Leigh at College Read online

  CHAPTER VI

  A WAVE OF REFORM

  Bea did her hair high for the first time in public on the evening of thePhilalethean Reception in her sophomore year. As was to have beenexpected, this event of vital importance demanded such carefulpreparation that she missed the address in chapel altogether and was latefor the first dance. When at last she really put in an appearance--and aradiant appearance it was, with cheeks flushed from the ardor of herartistic labors, she found the revelry in full swing, so to speak. Thecorridors and drawing-rooms were thronged with fair daughters and bravesons. Naturally the daughters were in the majority, most of them fairwith the beauty of youth. The sons were necessarily brave to face thecohorts of critical eyes that watched them from all sides.

  Two of the critical eyes belonged to Bea as she stood on the stairs for afew minutes and mourned that her handsomest cousin was not there toadmire her new white crepe, and also to be admired of the myriadguestless girls. She caught a glimpse of Lila in rose-colored mull as shepromenaded past with a cadet all to herself. Berta and Robbie werewalking together in the ceaseless procession from end to end of thesecond floor corridor, while the orchestra played and the couples whirledin the big dining-room. They were talking just as earnestly as if theyhad not seen each other every day for a year. Bea's dimple twinkled andshe took a step forward under the impulse to join them for the fun ofchaffing them about such polite devotion.

  At that moment Gertrude touched her shoulder.

  "Oh, Beatrice Leigh, have you anybody engaged for this number and thenext? My brother has turned up unexpectedly, and I haven't a singlepartner for him. Won't you take care of him while I rush around to fillhis program? Do! There's a dear!"

  "All right," said Bea, "can he talk?"

  "N-no, not much, but you can, and he's awfully easy to entertain. Tellhim about the girls or college life or anything. He's interested in itall. Will you? Oh, please! There goes Sara now. I've got to catch herfirst thing."

  "Bring on the brother," exclaimed Bea magnanimously, "I'll talk to him."

  And she did. Twenty minutes later, when Gertrude in her frantic searchthrough the shifting crowds explored the farthest group of easy chairs insenior corridor, she discovered Miss Bea still chattering vivaciously toa rapt audience of one.

  "I've been telling him about our playing at politics last month," shepaused to explain; "he was interested."

  The brother smiled down at her. "It is certainly a most entertainingstory," he said.

  "Things generally are when Bea tells them," commented Gertrude, "that isone of her gifts."

  "Oh, thank you!" Bea swept her a curtsey. "But don't hurry. Didn't youknow that I promised him a dance as a reward for listening to mydissertation on reform. Some day I'll maybe tell you the story."

  This is the story:

  Did Gertrude ever tell you about our playing at politics when we weresophomores? Possibly you have heard politics defined as present history,and history as past politics. On that understanding, this tale is ahistory. It is the history of a great reform. When I sit down to reflect,a luxury for which I seldom have time even in vacation, it really seemsto me that I have been reforming all my life. Lila has reformed a gooddeal since she entered college, and Berta has been almost as bad as I.Robbie Belle is the best one among us, but she does not realize it. Thatis the reason why she is such a dear. She never preaches--that is, neverunless it is her plain duty as at that time in the north tower, when wewere freshmen, you remember. If she disapproves of any of our schemes,she simply says she doesn't want to do it. That was what she said whenthe rest of us proposed to masquerade as a gang of wardheelers onelection day.

  You know what wardheelers are, I suppose. They are politicians who hangaround the polls and watch the voting and see that people vote for theright party, or the wrong party, for the matter of that. It all dependson which side they belong. When they notice anybody going to vote for theother side, they sort of intimidate him, tell him to get away, or elsepush him out of line or punch him in the head or something like that.Sometimes they stuff the ballot-boxes, too, or go from one poll toanother, voting over and over.

  Now Robbie Belle had joined in with all the other fun that autumn. Therewere imitation rallies and parades and receptions to candidates and mockbanquets with real speeches and fudges and crackers to eat. She made aperfectly splendid presidential candidate at one of the meetings. Shelooked ever so much like him too as she sat gravely on the platform withher hair parted on one side, and a borrowed silk hat clasped to the bosomof her brother's dress suit. When all at once her face crinkled in asudden irresistible smile, even the seniors said she was dear. But thistime she said she'd rather not be a wardheeler. She wouldn't come to abanquet of the gang the night before election day either. She said sheguessed she didn't want to.

  Berta and Lila and I collected butter and sugar and milk at the dinnertable that evening. In our dormitory we are allowed to carry away breadand milk to our rooms, but we are not supposed to take sugar or butterfor fudges. That seemed awfully stingy to us then; for in the pantrythere were barrels of sugar, great cans of milk, hundreds and thousandsof little yellow butterballs piled on big platters. We thought itwouldn't do any harm to use a tiny bit of it all for our banquet.

  At dinner I slid two butterballs into my glass of milk, and Lila filledher glass with sugar from the bowl and then poured enough milk over it tohide the grainy look. Robbie Belle kept her eyes in another direction,but Berta said we had a right to one of the balls anyhow, because she hadnot eaten butter all day. Berta is the brightest girl in the class andshe can argue about everything, and let the other person choose her sideof the question first too. It was not until later that she reformed fromthat tendency to juggle with her intellect, as Prexie calls it.

  Well, Lila and I marched down the long dining-room, past the seniors andthe faculty table, with our glasses held up in plain sight. As soon as wereached the corridor in unmolested safety, Lila gave a skip so joyousthat some drops spattered on the floor.

  She said, "Nobody caught us that time."

  "Hush!" I jogged her elbow so that unluckily more milk splashed on therubber matting, "there's Martha."

  Martha, you know--or probably you don't know until I tell you--was afreshman who roomed with Lila and me that year. She was the dearestlittle conscientious child with big eyes that were always staring at ussolemnly and giving me the shivers. She appeared to think so much morethan she spoke that we respected her a lot and tried to set her a goodexample.

  Martha was waiting for the elevator. She turned around and gazed at uswithout saying a word. She is considerably like Robbie Belle in herexasperating power of silence, but neither of them does it on purpose.

  Unfortunately just then a senior behind her turned around too and said,"Nobody catches anybody here. This is a college, not a boarding school."

  Now such a remark as that was distinctly unkind, not so much becauseeither Lila or I had ever been to a boarding school, for we hadn't, asbecause we wished we had. We had devoured all the stories about them andenvied the girls in them. We had hoped that we would find some of thesame kind of fun at college itself.

  Lila blushed, and I could not think of any repartee that would beappropriate, especially as Martha was staring so hard at the glass ofsugar. I had noticed all the fall that she was an odd child about candy.She never would touch a mouthful of any that we made--and we made itpretty often--maybe four times a week. She always just shook her head andsaid she'd rather not.

  It was a relief to hear the elevator come rattling up from the firstfloor. The dining-room is on the second, you see, though I don't knowthat this fact has any bearing on the story; still it may supply localcolor or realism or something like that. Well, we entered the elevator,and there stood a junior in the corner. This junior chanced to be aneditor of the college magazine which had offered a ten dollar prize forthe best short story handed in before October twentieth. She glanced atus and then stared hard at Martha till we had passed the third flo
or, andat the fourth she walked out behind us and spoke to Martha. She said,"Miss Reed, I think I am not premature in congratulating you upon thestory which you submitted in the contest. You will receive officialnotice of your victory before very long." And then she smiled the nicestsweetest smile at sight of Martha's face. It was like a burst ofsunshine--anybody would have smiled. I hugged her--Martha, not thejunior, because I am not well acquainted with her, you understand--but Iwanted to hug everybody. Lila squeezed Martha so hard that she squeakedout loud.

  "Oh," sighed the little freshman almost to herself, "now I can sendmother a birthday present."

  Wasn't that dear of her to think of giving it away first thing! Of coursesome girls would have thought of having a spread to celebrate and invitein all the crowd; but Martha was only a freshman and probably had nocollege spirit as yet. Her remark seemed to remind Lila of something, forshe quite jumped and exclaimed, "Why, you baby, I had forgotten all aboutthat two dollars and seventy-five cents I borrowed of you last month. Andhere it is only the sixth of November, but my allowance is nearly gone.Why didn't you poke up my memory?"

  "And I owe her ninety cents," said I.

  The little freshman walked on with her hands clasped high up over hernecktie. "Will they give me the prize soon?" she asked softly, "becausethe birthday is Thursday, and to-day is Monday, and it takes two days toget there."

  Lila looked at me and I looked at Lila. "We can scrape it togethersomehow," she said. Then she touched Martha on the shoulder. "Do you wantto buy it to-morrow?" she inquired, "because if you do, you shall. We'llmanage it somehow. We'll pay you what we owe, and then you can buy apresent even if the prize doesn't arrive in time."

  "Oh, thank you!" It was strange to see how voluble happiness was makingthe child. "Will you really? I've wanted and wanted, but I couldn't ask.I've got an engagement down town to try on my gymnasium suit to-morrowafternoon and I shall be so glad. I can mail it then."

  "All right," said I, "we'll get it for you."

  Then we forgot all about it till noon the next day. That was election dayand full of excitement, even if we hadn't been late to breakfast, becausethe fudges kept us awake the night before. Martha had gone into her roomearly to study. Though she had closed the door I am afraid the girls madea lot of noise; and she woke up with a headache. Of course Berta and Iand the others had a right to cut late if we wanted to do so, but wedidn't mean to keep anybody from working.

  Martha returned from breakfast just as I was catching together a tinyhole in my stocking above the shoe. It wasn't really my stocking, for Ihad lost mine by sending them unmarked to the laundry, and so I hadborrowed these from Martha. They were her finest best ones, I believe,and very nice, though her clothes generally seemed shabby. This morningshe told us to hurry down please, because the maid was feeling miserable.We did hurry and tried not to complain of the cold cocoa or the toughsteak, though it is certainly the maid's duty to get fresh hot things nomatter how late the girls are. She couldn't find our favorite crescentrolls in the pantry or down-stairs in the bakery or anywhere. Before wewere through eating, the other maids had cleared away their breakfastdishes and had their tables all set for luncheon. Our maid was naturallyslow, I suspect.

  After breakfast we had barely time to smooth the counterpanes over sheetsand blankets that lay in wrinkles. They looked pretty well on top, buthonestly I was relieved to have Martha and her big eyes out of the way.Though we snatched our books and ran through the corridors we were twominutes tardy in reaching the Latin room. The instructor was so irritablethat she laid down her book and the whole class waited while Lila and Itiptoed to our seats in the middle of the last row.

  With all the campaign excitement of course we had let our work getcrowded out, and the other girls appeared to be in the same fix. When themost dazzling star in the class flunked on a grammatical reference, theinstructor bit her lip and sent the question flying up one row and downanother as fast as the students could shake their heads. As it cameleaping nearer and nearer to us, Lila remembered a college story about agirl sliding from her place and kneeling behind the seat in front tillthe question had passed on over the vacant spot. Lila was so agitatedthat she forgot how conspicuous we had been in entering late. She slippedout of her seat and hid like the girl in the story. Then fell an awfulstillness. The question stopped right there, hovering over the emptyplace. Everybody waited. The instructor set her mouth in grimmer lines,and waited, her eyes glued to the spot from where Lila had vanished.Those in front turned around to look. Lila knelt there waiting andwaiting for the question to be passed on to me. I shook my head asvigorously as I dared, but nobody paid any attention. Lila waited andwaited; the instructor waited; everybody waited and waited, till Lila'sknees ached so that she lifted her face and peeked. She peeked straightinto those grim waiting eyes on the platform.

  Then the instructor said, "Miss Allan?" with the usual dreadfulinterrogative inflection, and Lila shook her head. She slid back into herseat with her cheeks as red as fire.

  The minute we escaped into the hall at the end of the recitation, thegirls gathered around us and giggled and teased Lila till she almostbroke down and cried before them all. There is a lot of differencebetween playing jokes on another person and appearing ridiculousyourself. The first few weeks of the year we had teased Martha by tellingher it was etiquette for freshmen to rise when addressed by sophomoresand stuff like that. The little thing was so unsophisticated that we madeup yards and yards of stories about the dangers of going walking alone orbeing out after dusk. One student really did have her purse snatched lastyear, and a senior saw a masked robber in the pines, and once a maidcaught a glimpse of a face outside her window, and actually one eveningsix of us beheld with our own eyes a man jump through the hedge.

  On this particular morning I had no time to waste, for my tutor inmathematics had warned me that she intended to charge me for the hour forwhich I had engaged her, no matter whether I arrived on the scene or not.That struck me as queer and rather mean, because on some days I did notfeel like going, and I failed to see why I should pay her for tutoringthat I had not received. She said that her time was valuable and an hoursquandered in waiting for a delinquent pupil was so much loss. I guess itwas a loss to me too.

  While I was flying around, trying to find my notes and pen, I heard agulp and a sob from Martha's bedroom, and popped in to find her with herhead buried in the pillow. The little idiot was crying because she hadflunked in English.

  "Oh, but English is so easy to bluff in!" I exclaimed, "almost any stringof words will do if the teacher asks for a discussion of a tendency or ofnature or vocabulary or poetic form or something. Didn't you make a tryat some sort of an answer?"

  "I said I didn't know," sobbed Martha, "and I didn't. My thoughts wereall mixed up and I couldn't remember a line."

  "You goosie!" I was disgusted. "If I said I didn't know at everyopportunity where I could say it truthfully, how long do you think Iwould be allowed to stay in this institution of learning? When I don'tknow a fact, I use fancy. It is the greatest fun to catch a hint andelaborate it into a brilliant recitation without a jot of knowledge toback it up. It takes brains to do it. You've got to learn to bluff, andthen get along without studying."

  The little freshman raised her heavy eyes, all reddened about the lids."Oh, but that isn't honest," she said.

  "Not honest?" For an instant I was actually alarmed. Once when I myselfwas a freshman I nearly lost my faith in human nature because a seniorwhom I admired did something that looked dishonest. But sendingvalentines to yourself in order to win a prize is different frombluffing. So I said, "Nonsense!" and was just hurrying out of the doorwhen she called in a quivery voice: "P-please, may I borrow a sheet oftheme paper? Mine's all gone and I can't buy--I mean, it's due to-night."

  "Help yourself," I answered, "there's a heap of it that I carried awayfrom the last German test. Right hand drawer of the desk."

  "No, no! I can't take that. Haven't you any that you bought with your ownmoney? I'l
l pay it back. That paper--they gave it to you--didn't theygive it to you just for the test?"

  I stopped and walked over to feel of her head and tell her that she oughtto see the doctor or take a nap or something. Then I gave her threesheets of the paper and told her not to be silly. I don't know whethershe used it or not. At luncheon she appeared with her fingers inky andher hat on.

  Berta said, "Whither, my child?"

  She answered, "Down town." And then she looked at Lila with such anxiouseyes that I jumped and clapped my hands together in contrition.

  "Lila, we've forgotten to get that money for her!"

  Martha turned her face toward me and sat gazing like a little dog. Weasked all the girls at the table for contributions, but they were nearlypenniless. I said, "Are you in a hurry, Martha?" And she said she had tobe there at two o'clock. So we told her to hurry on, and we would get themoney somewhere and meet her on the corner of Main and Market Streets atquarter past four sharp. She said, "Honest?" And I answered, "Yes, trustme. We'll be there, and I'll stand treat for soda water, if I can scrapeup any extra pennies. You run along and pick out your present."

  And then, do you know, in spite of all that and our promise to meet her,we forgot every bit about it till half-past four! You see, it waselection day, and we were frightfully busy. After the fifth hourrecitation we hurried into the ragged blue overalls that we had worn inone of the torchlight parades. Lila punched up the crown of an old feltalpine hat, and I battered my last summer's sailor till it lookeddisreputable enough. Then we rushed over to the gymnasium to join ourgang of wardheelers.

  We found the judges sitting at bare tables with their lists before themand wooden booths along the walls. And then--oh, I can't do justice tothe fun we had! Some of us hung around outside and tried to scare awayopposing voters by telling how the judges might make them sing scales orslide down ropes or wipe off their smiles on the carpets or chant thelaundry list or write their names in ink with their noses, if they shouldbe challenged. We actually succeeded in frightening away several timidfreshmen. The rest of the gang pretended to stuff ballot-boxes and buyvotes, just as we had read in the papers.

  Berta, Lila and I voted while wearing our overalls. Then we dashed backto our rooms and dressed in our ordinary clothes and attempted to vote asecond time. Such fun! The judges recognized us and refused to accept ourballots. Such an uproar as we raised! The other wardheelers stormed tothe rescue; the lists were scattered, and the tables overturned. Ofcourse it was only a joke, and most of us were too weak from laughing toclear away the disorder in time for the polls to close promptly.

  And then we happened to remember Martha.

  There it was half-past four and it would certainly be five before wecould get ready and catch the car and reach the corner of Main andMarket. So we let it go and decided that she would be tired of waiting bythat time and start for home, and we might most likely miss her anyhow,even if we should collect the money and try to keep the engagement. Andbesides that we were having such a picnic telling about the turmoil atthe polls that we hated to waste a minute away from the scene. Berta hada splendid idea about dressing up as policemen and borrowing the expresswagon belonging to the janitor's grandson, and then tearing over to thegym as if we had been summoned to arrest the hoodlums and take them tojail in the patrol. It was so late, however, that we had to give thisplan up and get ready for dinner. It was a dreadful disappointment.

  Martha hadn't come yet. It was half-past five and dark, and then it wasquarter of six, and then it was six, and we went down to dinner, but shehadn't come yet. And then it was half-past six, and we went down theavenue to the Lodge to watch the car unload, but no Martha. We danced inparlor J for a while, and then we went to chapel at seven, but she hadn'tcome yet. And then we walked down to the Lodge again and watched threecars stop and turn around the curve, one after another, but she wasn't inany of them. And then we went back to tell Mrs. Howard, the ladyprincipal, about it. And she was awfully anxious and asked all sorts ofquestions about Martha, and what kind of a girl she was, and if she hadany money with her, or any friends in town, or any peculiar habits aboutrunning away from her friends, or any trouble lately or anything.

  Then she began to telephone and went to see Prexie, and Lila and Iwandered out to the stairs above the bulletin board where the studentswere waiting to hear the election returns. Between the successivetelegrams the girls clapped and laughed and stamped and hissed atspeeches by the seniors and juniors, or else they sang patriotic songs.

  When Miss Benton, president of the Students' Association, the greatesthonor in the college course, and she is the finest senior in the classtoo--was urged upon a chair to make a speech, Lila almost pushed methrough the banisters in her excitement. She has admired Miss Benton eversince the first day when it rained, and we were so terribly homesick, andshe smiled at us in the corridor.

  "Hush!" whispered Lila, "listen! Isn't she beautiful!"

  "Ouch!" said I, "she isn't beautiful, she's downright plain with her hairsmoothed back that way." But I said it pretty low, because that staircasebanked with girls was no place for distinctly enunciated personalities.It was a humorous speech, for one reason of Miss Benton's popularity isher fun under a dignified manner. In the middle of the cheering after shehad finished, the messenger girl appeared with a new bulletin. Somebodyread it aloud so that we could all hear. It reported the victory of thecorrupt party machine in an important city. Nobody spoke. There was justthe faint sound of a big sighing oh-h-h! and then a hush.

  The next thing I knew, Miss Benton and some other seniors were coming upthe stairs, and the girls were moving this way and that to open a pathfor them. Lila crowded closer to me so as to make way. A junior on thestep below reached up her hand and stopped Miss Benton as she waspassing.

  "Do wait for the next telegram, Mary," she said, "perhaps that will bemore encouraging. The country as a whole seems to be going right."

  Miss Benton dropped down beside her with an awfully discouraged sort of asigh. "You don't live there, and I do," she said. "You do not know howthe reform party has worked with soul and strength to defeat that boss.Something is terribly wrong with the citizens and their standards ofhonesty. How could they? How could they?"

  The junior bent nearer to speak in lower tones; but Lila and I could nothelp hearing. "Mary, something is wrong with us too," she whispered. "Didyou know that to-day at our mock election some of the sophomorespretended to be corrupt voters and wardheelers? They intimidated voters,challenged registrations, played at buying votes, tried to stuff theballot-boxes. There was a most disgraceful scrimmage! To turn such crimesinto a joke! How could they? How could we?"

  Miss Benton straightened herself with a movement that was sorrowful andangry and discouraged all at once. She drew a deep breath.

  "I will tell you what is wrong with us as well as with the entirecountry. Our ideal of honesty is wrong. With us here at college thetrouble is in little things; with the world of business and politics theevil is in great matters too. But the principle is the same. We are nothonest. We condemn graft in public office. Is it not also graft when astudent helps herself to examination foolscap and takes it for privateuse? Is the girl who carries away sugar from the table any better thanthe government employee who misappropriates funds or supplies in hischarge? We cry out in horror at revelations of bribery. Ah, but in ourclass elections do we vote for the candidate who will best fill theoffice, or for our friends? I have known a girl who desired to bepresident of the Athletic Association to bargain away her influence toanother who was running for an editorship."

  "And some of us travel on passes which are made out in other names."

  Miss Benton did not hear. "We exclaim--we point our fingers--we groanover the trickery of officials, scandals, bribery, treachery,lawlessness. And yet we--is it honest to bluff in recitations--to layclaim to knowledge which we do not possess? Is it honest to injure alibrary book and not pay for the damage? Is it honest to neglect toreturn borrowed property? Some of us rob th
e maids of strength byobliging them to work overtime in waiting on us at the table. Our lack ofpunctuality steals valuable time from tutors and teachers and each other.We cheat the faculty by slighting our opportunities and thus making theirlife work of inferior quality to that which they have a right to expect.By heedless exaggeration we may murder a reputation--mutilate anexistence. We wrong each other by being less than our best. We areunscrupulous about breaking promises. Down town this afternoon at thecorner of Main and Market Streets I saw a freshman waiting in the cold.She was walking to and fro to get warm. Her teeth chattered,--she wascrying from nervous suspense. When I spoke to her and advised her toreturn to college before dark, she shook her head, and said no, somebodyhad promised to meet her, and she had to stay. Now that girl, whoever itwas, who broke that engagement, is responsible----"

  I leaned forward and clutched Miss Benton's shoulder.

  "She hasn't come back yet," I cried; "do you think she is there still? Iforgot--I thought it didn't matter. I didn't mean to--"

  Miss Benton turned around her head to look up at me, and the others nearus looked too, and down at the foot of the stairs the crowd packed infront of the bulletin board sort of quieted for a minute and seemed to belistening and watching us. And up on the wall over their heads the bigclock went tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, and its long pendulum swungto and fro.

  Then swish, swish, swish, the lady principal came hurrying through thereception hall beyond, with her silk skirts rustling, and her face quitepale. And the girls turned their heads toward her. She raised her handand said in her soft voice: "Are Miss Martha Reed's roommates here?"

  And then some more girls with their hats and coats on came running up thesteps from the vestibule. The crowd was buzzing like everything when Lilaand I pushed our way through to tell Mrs. Howard we were there. We caughtscraps of sentences flying hither and thither.

  "Run over?"

  "Lying in the road----"

  "Who found her?"

  "Yes, right there in the loneliest part."

  "Such a timid little thing----"

  "Frightened and fell maybe----"

  "Queer she didn't take the car."

  "Is she dead?"

  Lila pushed ahead, thrusting the girls right and left from her path. Icouldn't see her face, but her shoulders kept pumping up and down as ifshe were smothering. You know she's more sensitive than I am, and I feltbadly enough.

  Mrs. Howard took her hand and said, "Miss Reed wishes to see you both andleave a message."

  Of course such a speech would make anybody think she was dying. I rubbedmy sleeve across my eyes and shut my teeth together and swallowed once,for the other girls around were gazing after us. Lila walked on with herhead up. I couldn't see anything but the line of her cheek, and thatlooked sort of cold and stony. We followed on over the thick rugs intothe second reception room. There sitting in a big chair, leaning backagainst a cushion kind of limp and pale but not dead at all--there wasMartha.

  "Did you get the money?" she asked.

  Lila didn't answer. She just dropped on her knees and hid her faceagainst Martha's dress.

  "It was a centerpiece I thought Mother would like. I chose it in theshop-window there at the corner while I was waiting. Maybe it will getthere almost in time if it is mailed to-morrow, but the doctor says Imust go to the infirmary for a day or two. If you would please send itaway for me in the morning--if you have the money to buy it, Lila,--I'msorry."

  The doctor walked in alert and brusque as usual but gentle too.

  "Now for my captive," she said, "time's up. Life in a study with twosophomores is hard on a freshman's nerves. A few days of the rest-curewill about suit you."

  Martha glanced at me, for Lila was still hiding her face.

  "It was silly of me," she explained shyly, "but I grew so nervous whenyou didn't meet me that I cried and that made it worse. I watched everycar and both sides of the street, and I waited till after dark. You see,I didn't have any money for car-fare. After they began to light thelamps, I started to walk out here to the college. Everybody was eatingsupper, and I was all alone on the road with dark fields on both sides. Icould not help thinking of those dreadful robbers and maniacs andtramps----"

  "What?" cried the doctor.

  I drew a deep breath. "We told her," I said. "I--I'm afraid weexaggerated. I--I thought it would be more interesting."

  "Oh!" said the doctor. It was such a grim sort of an oh that I repentedsome more, though indeed it was not necessary.

  Martha smiled at me. I always did consider her the dearest, mostsympathetic little thing. "It was my fault," she said, "I am such acoward anyhow. And then when I ran past a rock, I imagined I sawsomething move and jump toward me. I lost my wits and ran and ran and rantill I twisted my ankle and fell. I must have struck my head on a stone.I'm sorry. It was silly of me to run. Please don't worry."

  "That will do for the present," said the doctor.

  Then they carried her over to the infirmary. Lila and I walked out pastthe crowd in front of the bulletin board. They were cheering.

  "Listen, Lila," I said, "good news from somewhere."

  "We promised to meet her," said Lila.

  I hate regrets. "Well," I said, "that's all over and done with. There isno use in bothering about it now. But the next promise we make----"

  Berta rushed up to us. "Oh, girls!" she exclaimed, "did you catch thatlast return? Reform is sweeping the country. Hurrah!"